Weather Eye: the big stink

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The recent incident in which foul air wafted across from northern France is not a new occurence

A big stink described as rotten cabbage wafted over southern England on
Tuesday, carried on winds from a leak at a chemical plant in northern France
(report,
Jan 23). But this was not the first such smelly incident.

In April 2008 a foul smell like sulphur and manure was reported across
England, but particularly in Reading and Basingstoke. The Met Office
described it as “Euro-whiff”, and that it was simply pollution, the “odour
of ordinary everyday life in northern Europe”. A more mysterious stink hit
part of the South Coast in May 2005. Gas companies were inundated with calls